Alexis Bledel returns to The Handmaid’s Tale

I had several emotions in a row when I read this headline today, telling us Alexis Bledel will be a series regular in Season 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale. My first thought was, yeah, no sh*t, she was great. Of course they should up her to series regular. Arguably she made the first few episodes of that show.

SPOILERS

This was followed closely by …ummm, so I guess she’s not dead then? When she’s carted off after her wild, impulsive, but ultimately fruitless carjacking, we have to assume that she’s going to be executed or sent to the Colonies, given that her earlier punishments, including having her clitoris amputated, were already fairly severe.

But I guess the fictional sentiment is either: that the van that dragged her off was actually part of MayDay, or that her reproductive properties as a Handmaid trump her gender traitor/actual traitor tendencies?

Then of course, I thought that I wish I didn’t know this. That speculating about it necessarily makes me think about Season 2, and that I have so loved the surprises and the gut-punches Season 1 delivered – even though I knew the basic story – that I want to know as little as possible. Online speculation, which assumes this (and other clues) means Season 2 will be about the resistance and uprising, is probably correct, and I mean, if you asked me what I thought might happen in S2 of the show that’s probably where I would go… but I wish I didn’t know it yet.

However, I am glad to know some things, too. I’m glad Bledel has had such an impact. That she did turn out to be the actress that we thought she might be. Lainey is deep in Gilmore Girls Season 5 right now, which tends to mark the beginning of the ‘shut up, Rory’ era. But it’s great to be reminded that Bledel is not synonymous with Rory. In fact…

The article also presumes that shooting S2 of Handmaid's precludes any more new Gilmore Girls on Netflix. Given that I’m not sure anyone wanted that except Netflix, that’s not a huge surprise – but it is pretty reassuring...

Which is not a word I feel comfortable using to describe anything to do with a terrifyingly believable show about a woman-oppressing dystopia, but there it is.